


Job Application

by Cutekittenlady



Series: Kallura Vampire AU [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen, Vampire Allura, human keith, semi-cyborg shiro, vampire!AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-21
Updated: 2017-08-21
Packaged: 2018-12-18 02:40:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11864934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cutekittenlady/pseuds/Cutekittenlady
Summary: Keith approaches Shiro in order to ask for a very important favor.





	Job Application

**Author's Note:**

> Get to know me on Twitter @cutekittenlady  
> And on my tumblr fic blog http://cutekittenlady.tumblr.com/

From the time the princess had made her deal with him until she finally took her first bite, Keith had been getting used to the castle and it’s inhabitants.

Living in a large stone castle was an experience. Especially for someone whose usual sleeping arrangements tended to involve trees, reasonably dry overhangs or caves, abandoned buildings, barns, and, if he was lucky, a well placed pile of cow manure (one of the warmest places you could sleep).

For starters the castle was easily the biggest piece of man-made architecture that Keith had ever been under. Or at least the biggest one with a roof. Despite nearly being a thousand years old, the whole thing held together pretty well. 

Keith could only assume that this was because there was a long-lived vampire princess taking up occupancy who ensured that the upkeep of her family home was of the highest priority.

He was sure that some history nut would get a kick out of the place, for a person like him there were only three things that mattered.

The roof didn’t leak, there was non-rotting food in the pantry, and, save for the small incident with the demon, no one was actively trying to attack him.

Oh sure, there was a lavatory, running water, a fireplace in every bedroom, an insanely massive library, and the most expansive private garden Keith had ever seen. But after growing up accustomed to everything the wilderness had to offer (wherein a leaf on the end of a stick was considered the height of toiletry luxury) the whole display just seemed excessive.

Neat, less-stressful, and enjoyable.

But excessive.

Not having to worry about where his next meal came from or where he was going to stay for the night was a new experience. His whole life had just been an ongoing cycle of wake up, find food, try not to die at the hands of a monster, and find a place to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

It had been his daily routine.

In the castle, however, Keith had adopted a new routine.

Wake up, get dressed, go to breakfast, get sent back to wash up (because apparently washing every day was a thing), come back, eat food, help clean up, get sent to do whatever chores needed to be done, listen to Coran drole on and on about “back in his day”, get called back for lunch and dinner, say goodnight, change into night clothes, and go to sleep. Rinse and repeat.

It was… much more varied than before. And there were more people involved too.

Coran woke him up every morning.

Shiro always gave him a hearty good morning. 

Lance was friendly enough but always seemed to have this glint in his eye as though he was anticipating something. Some private joke. (What it was, Keith had yet to guess.)

Hunk was polite enough. Though he kept his distance from the human most days. Keith could only assume this was due to some kind of shyness, though the stone man had an easy enough time interacting with everyone else.

Pidge barely seemed to register his presence and seemed to go on as though nothing in her life had changed.

As for Princess Allura…

Keith couldn’t look her in the eye.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like her. If he was being perfectly honest his opinion of her was more neutral than anything else. He was grateful that she had placed him under her protection, and even given him a place to stay. But he had no delusions as to why she had accommodated him. 

She was a vampire. She needed human blood.

He was a human. Who had an overabundance of blood, and a serious monster problem.

The arrangement had worked pretty well for both of them so far.

Keith had gone the longest he ever had before without having to worry about food, shelter, or whether or not he was going to be attacked that night. And the princess now had a steady supply of fresh blood to bolster her magic powers, and make protecting her territory a much easier task. Their deal had given both of them a great deal more security.

Now if only he’d known ahead of time just how intimate blood drinking actually was.

It hadn’t been a negative experience. Far from it. But for some strange reason recalling the memory instantly caused Keith’s face to grow hot as he remembered just how the bite had made him feel. 

Never before in his young life had he ever been so intimate with another person. As a result he had no idea how to act around the princess afterwards. Thing was, Allura didn’t seem to know how to act around him either.

The result was the two of them constantly dancing around one another day after day with only the occasional “hello” to break the awkward silence. 

Sadly the rest of the castle’s residents seem to find their whole situation absolutely hilarious. Coran in particular seemed to roll his eyes at Keith whenever the boy averted his gaze from the princess’s.

Still, even with his admittedly awkward arrangement with his benefactor, everything should have been perfect. After all, all of Keith’s needs were being met. If this arrangement kept up he’d never have to fear going hungry ever again.

And yet there still remained one problem.

Keith was bored.

Without having to worry about his essential needs, and his day to day life now peaceful (or as peaceful as it could get in a castle full of monsters) there was very little to occupy his time. Chores only ate up so much time in a day, and up until now Keith had never had time to develop any hobbies.

There were things he enjoyed doing. Hunting, fishing, whittling, etc. But those had always been things that had helped him survive. Keith couldn’t really think of anything he did out of sheer enjoyment. Even reading and writing were things he had learned out of necessity.

Allura’s library was informative, but while Keith didn’t mind reading for pleasure he hated the idea of spending ALL of his leisure time just sitting on his ass doing nothing.

Keith wanted to exert his energy. Do something physical and active. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be anything available to fill his needs.

He’d entertained the thought of hunting for sport, but it honestly seemed like such a waste of time. Besides, he didn’t know how the princess would feel about him hunting on her land. Experience had taught him rich folk could be iffy about that.

Allura likely wouldn’t kick him out or kill him given the whole blood-letter thing, but getting his fingers cut off wasn’t any better. Keith had managed to avoid that particular punishment despite years of poaching. He didn’t intend to lose digits  _ now _ out of boredom.

He could only see one alternative that would keep his life from devolving into a dull existence. 

Hunting demons and monsters appealed to Keith greatly. After spending nearly the entirety of his life on the run from such creatures, the idea of making them run away from  _ him…  _ It was too much to pass up.

There still remained a problem, however.

Keith didn’t know how to broach the subject, or rather, WHO to broach the subject with.

The princess was immediately out of the question. Not only could they not look each other in the eye, but Keith wasn’t entirely convinced she’d be in much of a hurry to endanger her newfound food source.

Coran was Allura’s loyalest servant by the looks of things. So talking to him wasn’t much better than talking to her.

Pidge barely acknowledged his existence, and while he could probably convince Hunk or Lance to put in a good word for him neither had the kind of leverage he would need to convince the princess.

So that left one person.

“You want to… what?”

Shiro sat at his writing desk looking up at the boy with a stern expression.

Keith was reminded of a sea-captain he had once seen who had given his crew a similar stare whenever one of them asked if they could take an unplanned short cut. Often, as it turned out, through choppy waters.

Keeping his focus fixated on Shiro’s face, he tried to prevent his eyes from wandering down to the man's cybernetic arm. He’d learned from Lance that Shiro had once been captured by warlocks and experimented on in an attempt to create “a more perfect being” by mixing magic and technology. Hence the brass and cog appendage.

Lance had apparently come across Shiro on accident and helped him escape his captors. Bringing him back to the castle and its vampiric princess.

With no home to go back to, and now a very obvious outcast in human society, Shiro had stayed and become something of Allura’s second in command. Lance, Hunk, and Pidge all seemed ready and willing to take his orders and follow them through. The princess valued his opinion, and while Coran didn’t seem to fall under the influence of Shiro’s leadership there was still a very obvious respect between the two. 

The amount of respect everyone in the castle seemed to have for the man impressed Keith greatly. 

Partially because he was clearly still young. 

But mostly because Shiro was  _ human _ . 

Or at least more human than everyone else in the castle.

One could argue that Pidge and Lance were both technically human. But Pidge was a witch and Lance… 

Keith couldn’t be sure but there was something otherworldly about Lance. He looked human, acted human, and as far as he could tell, physically human. But there was something there. 

Something that make Keith’s subconscious instantly kick Lance out of the human category and into a place of his own. For the life of him he didn’t know what it was, but he’d become too cautious of the supernatural to take any risks.

Regardless of what exactly everyone in the castle was, Shiro was the one they often looked to for leadership.

And a person didn’t get that position by letting any Tom, Dick, or Jane onto his team.

His eyes were already scanning Keith critically. Looking for any doubt that might be harboring over the boys head.

He’d have to step lightly if he wanted to pull this off.

“I want to join you and the others when you hunt monsters.” Keith tried to look as tall as possible in an attempt to make his physical form match his resolve.

A feat that swiftly became pointless when Shiro got up from his seat. The cyborg wasn’t actually much taller than Keith. However, he WAS more muscular and the way he straightened his back and squared his shoulders created the illusion of a towering giant of a man.

The way he stood, and the way he looked, Keith half expected a stern “no” before being pushed out the door and ordered to go help in the kitchen.

But what Shiro said next surprised him.

“Why?”

Keith blinked. “W-what?”

“I asked you, why? It’s a kind of question.”

“I-I know what “why” means!”

“Then answer it. Unless you need me to be more plain.”

When Keith failed to respond immediately, Shiro rephrased the question.

“Why do you want to hunt supernatural creatures? Is it to get revenge against creatures like the ones that hurt you?”

Keith sucked in a breath.

That wasn’t exactly untrue. The thought had occurred to him more than once. Even before meeting the princess. But that wasn’t the real reason he wanted to join in. 

Was it?

“Let me put it another way.” Shiro continued. “Do you want to kill supernatural creatures?”

A knot formed in the pit of Keith’s stomach.

“I-Is that… what you do?” he asked.

Shiro didn’t answer.

Somehow the silence was more deafening than any answer.

It was true that Keith didn’t have much love for monsters. Not even ones people tended to think of as “good”. Unicorns, he knew from experience, were complete assholes. And others of their ilk tended to get away with misdeeds under the virtue of having a good reputation.

Any man who came home and screamed about how a unicorn had skewered his daughter would either be taken for a drunkard, a lunatic, or a murderer.

But as he thought about it, indiscriminate killing wasn’t what Keith wanted either. 

For every unicorn skewering young girls there were annoying, but otherwise harmless, creatures like gnomes. They’d take every piece of metal on your person that wasn’t clasped in your own two hands or nailed down, but outside of the leaving random travelers without their shoe or belt buckles gnomes rarely interacted with humans.

Keith could see himself finding some satisfaction in driving his knife through a unicorn. But none from doing the same to a gnome. Even kicking the little crooks into a river seemed a little over the top.

He felt his mouth going dry as he tried to answer the man’s question. “I… I don’t know.”

It wasn’t a very good answer.

“I see.” Shiro muttered. 

The grandfather clock in the corner chimed. Its dull ringing reverberating and filling the silent room.

“I suppose I could talk to Coran about it.”

Keith bit his lip, not daring to make any kind of expression. Either of joy or disgust. He felt he could do either at this point.

“But you know,” Shiro looked down as his human arm gripped his mechanical one. “People can die while facing the supernatural. You can walk into a place expecting the job to be easy. Only to never walk out again. It’s also very likely that you won’t actually die. Instead you’d end up suffering. Maybe for a few hours. A few days. Months. Years. Decades. It depends on the being. And it’s always painful.”

He looked back at Keith, who by now had his eyes fixed on Shiro’s arm.

“Do you still wanna give it a try?”

Tearing his gaze from the cogs and bolts that made up the prosthetic Keith raised his head and met Shiro’s eyes.

“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked.”

Shiro gave a small chuckle and shrug as he shook his head.

“Alright then.” He patted Keith on the shoulder as he headed for the door. “Here’s hoping you don’t lose that resolve.”

It was only after the older man left that Keith allowed his hand to unclench.

He’d gotten his foot in the door.

Now he just had to be sure it was the right one.


End file.
